IG-88 head: lighting options?

[Fetthunter]

I have one of Skaught's resin head casts, and will be using it on my full-body IG-88 build. As I'm working on the head, I was wondering what the consensus is on lighting it?

I know that we decided that red lighting gels were used on the original along with a (most likely) standard light bulb. I have a source for gels, and will experiment with several shades until I get something convincing, but I'm wondering what to use as a light sourcs... ? :confused

I assume that a regular light bulb was used in the original, since super brightness LEDs were not available back then. Since I have a resin cast, using a 60W/100W light bulb wouldn't be wise, as it would end up thermoforming the cast. :lol I thought about using a compact fluorescent bulb, as a 15W CFL bulb is the brightness of a 75W incandescent, and wouldn't be hot enough to cause damage over an extended period of time (I don't think).

What do YOU guys think? Use a low wattage CFL? Use super-bright LEDs? Something else?


Thanks,

J

 

[GKvfx]

Well, I've been pondering this myself since I have one of Skaught's castings.

I ruled out a high wattage bulb just for the heat reasons. The CFL bulb I have in lamp does get quite warm, so I ruled that out. I also tried a regular fluorescent bulb (one of those things you can get an adapter for and screw into a regular fixture).

A 13 watt bulb looked something like this:

You do not need a lot of wattage to get this thing lit unless you plan on displaying it outside in the daylight.

For the red gels, I experimented with some movie light gels (made by either Lee or Roscoe and available at good, professional camera shops) and came up with this:

I went to my local auto shop and found something called Fix-A-Lens which is a couple of sheets of .040" thick red transparent plastic for fixing your taillight. That stuff would be perfectly fine (and maybe cheaper).

Believe it or not, the color temperature of the bulb makes a difference. The fluorescent bulbs, being greener in color, suck some of the red color out of the light.

I'm going to try using a regular bulb that I use in my picture frame lights. I think it's about 15 watts. There isn't a lot of heat from it, but I also don't plan on using IG-88 as a night light either.........

Gene

 

[Fetthunter]

Yeah, I was thinking that since it's a confined space, a lot of light might not be necessary... I wonder about a 15W nightlight bulb or similar? I don't think anything 15W or less would be enough to mis-shape the cast, especially if the top hole in the head is cut open to act as a vent.

I've also considered lining the inside of the cast with aluminum foil (the shiny side facing in) to act as a makeshift reflector to gain more brightness and to help dissipate heat some.

I was looking at Rosco's Roscolux #25 Orange Red and #19 Fire color gels. I'm going for the orange-y look.

 

[IndyFanChuck]

Jamey, don't make fun of me. But what about a christmas light bulb. Yes, I'm serious. It would be CHEAP, easy, and there you go.

Those little lights you can have on a christmas hat at Wal Mart around Christmas are only like 4 dollars.

I was just hoping it would be bright enough for you!

 

[Fetthunter]

Jamey, don't make fun of me. But what about a christmas light bulb. Yes, I'm serious. It would be CHEAP, easy, and there you go.

Those little lights you can have on a christmas hat at Wal Mart around Christmas are only like 4 dollars.

I was just hoping it would be bright enough for you!

Chuck, I don't think that (individually) they'd be bright enough. Maybe a whole sting of lights, balled-up and stuffed in the head might do the trick... I might worry about being able to see 100 tiny points of light through the red gels, though.

With the lightbulb, I'd mount it low... Like in the lower head/high neck area. That way you wouldn't see the bulb, just the light from it.

I don't know. There's not much reference for this sort of thing, so I'm making it up as I go along! :lol

 

[GKvfx]

The thing I noticed that there is no light whatsoever spilling into the "mouth" area. There is some light spilling out of the little vent holes that are above the "mouth" (though I don't know if I'm going to drill out ALL of them), but the "mouth" and "ear" (I guess they are ears - they are on the side of his head after all) and all dark. This means that there will have to be some sort of light baffle in there.

Gene

 

[lonepigeon]

This means that there will have to be some sort of light baffle in there.

Definitely.
You can tell in the movie that the "baffle" is misaligned somehow which is why light spills out of the ring of holes just to the right of his "eyes".
The light inside must be strong because the light spill is bright white in a couple pics (misinterpreted by many licensees as holes instead of light reflecting on a surface).

 

[Fetthunter]

The thing I noticed that there is no light whatsoever spilling into the "mouth" area. There is some light spilling out of the little vent holes that are above the "mouth" (though I don't know if I'm going to drill out ALL of them), but the "mouth" and "ear" (I guess they are ears - they are on the side of his head after all) and all dark. This means that there will have to be some sort of light baffle in there.

Gene

I drilled out all 40 holes today. It was FUN.

When you cut off the bottom of the "neck", if you flip it upside down, the "head" fits on it perfectly and it acts as a baffle to cover the large holes at the bottom.

Also, the head will pivot and rotate on the baffle piece, just like is seen in the VD pic.

 

[GKvfx]

Yeah, I may drill them all out and then selectively blank off most of them so that the light only spills out of a few. It all depends on how it looks. If it looks cool, I'm all for it. Though I'm trying to get it very close to what was used, the lack of reference photos is allowing me a bit of creative license. Least, that's the story I'm using.

Gene

 

[lonepigeon]

I drilled out all 40 holes today. It was FUN.

When you cut off the bottom of the "neck", if you flip it upside down, the "head" fits on it perfectly and it acts as a baffle to cover the large holes at the bottom.

Also, the head will pivot and rotate on the baffle piece, just like is seen in the VD pic.

You need the "neck" the way it was originally, not upside down.
Take a closer look at the VD pic, you can see the neck is still oriented with the narrower end down.

 

[Fetthunter]

You need the "neck" the way it was originally, not upside down.
Take a closer look at the VD pic, you can see the neck is still oriented with the narrower end down.

It won't fit into the head unless you flip it upside down, or at least our resin casts from Skaught won't. For kicks and grins, let's say that the place where you cut the head and neck apart is 8" diameter. That means that the bottom of the head and the top of the neck are now both 8" diameter. An 8" tube will not fit into an 8" tube, unless it is crimped (which you can't do to resin. Flip the cut off portion, and the head fits right on.

Also in the VD pic, it appears that the bottom of the neck was crimped in 2 places, thus making it narrower on the bottom.

Having an actual, metal piece might allow you to do all sorts of juju to it... Take sections off, place parts inside of parts... Things we just can't do with one-piece resin casts. We have to be creative whether it's "correct" or not. As long as it looks right in the end, I'll be happy. I'm almost done scaling my reference pics and have the skeleton built except for final tweaking, then on to the body sections and electronics. :thumbsup

So, I guess I'm going to try a CFL and varying gels. Since gels are subtractive in nature, it should be fun finding the "right" shade to use...

 

[lonepigeon]

You're not cutting enough material away (and the resin is probably thicker than the metal).

Cutting resin you can use a thin blade, but you're not removing enough material. When you cut a real metal one with a thick blade it removes enough material so that the bottom just slips inside the top (LordSandy did it and posted pics).
A real one is made from .06 inch thick metal too which makes a difference.

Turning the neck upside down is not a good solution - then your neck is wrong.

The head does not rest on the neck anyway. There has to be an internal support structure.

 

[GKvfx]

To the lonepigeon I would listen. I wound up cutting the neck off using the band below the mouth holes as a guide (I cut below it, so it would be part of the head).

Then, the top of the neck piece was trimmed again - at an angle - so it would fit inside the opening.

This allows the head to sit back at an angle and you won't see parts of the neck protruding up inside the holes.

Gene

 

[Treadwell]

Spray painting the interior with "chrome" paint could help with the bulb brightness. Also, there's always the "school book report cover" approach to finding tinted sheets...

 

[Skaught]

When I made my first one, I had to cut a bit more of the neck to fit it inside. I haven't done this yet, but my plan is to glue several plastic blocks around the inside, almost a ring, for it to rest on.

I drilled out all of the small holes and will just let the light spill out. It's indirect due to their angle. FYI to anyone else still in need of cutting these -- the small, narrow cone sanding bit for a dremel works perfectly. Just the right size. I use a large cone bit to drill out the "eye" holes, too. Exact size.

I lit mine with a single bulb. I don't know the wattage, but it's the kind of bulb you'd have in a fake candle stick, that people put in their windows at christmas. I left that lit for a while and it didn't heat up the head too much.

Scott

 

[Fetthunter]

I lit mine with a single bulb. I don't know the wattage, but it's the kind of bulb you'd have in a fake candle stick, that people put in their windows at christmas. I left that lit for a while and it didn't heat up the head too much.

Scott

Got any pics of it lit?

My gels should be here Monday.

 

[Skaught]

I made gels by running a transparency through a color laser printer. I printed one bg red rectangle. Seems to work!

Scott

 

[womo68]

Old thread I know What did you use for the rca looking greeblies?

 

[Skaught]

They are RF connectors. Use to be easy to get at Radio Shack but now you have to get them online and I've heard they're not cheap. I make a resin greeblie kit along with the heads for those parts.

Scott

 

[darthlaker]

Jamey, don't make fun of me. But what about a christmas light bulb. Yes, I'm serious. It would be CHEAP, easy, and there you go.

Those little lights you can have on a christmas hat at Wal Mart around Christmas are only like 4 dollars.

I was just hoping it would be bright enough for you!

That's a great idea......!